21st Century Supply Chain Solutions

Comment

Comment by Kirsten Watson on December 3, 2008 at 4:00pm

Kim thanks for your comment. You make some very good points. In order to effectively compete today, companies need to ensure they're equipped to successfully plan, monitor and respond. I'd welcome you to follow our blog and offer additional comments and insights on what you find there.

Comment by Kim Sauer on December 3, 2008 at 10:28am

Larry is absolutely right - in my days at Uni it was called 'building in contingencies'. No one has a crystal ball (if someone does please call me!) and many companies in the past months would have had experienced that even the best plans don't always work out. Despite all that, planning is still vital and I'm often shocked at how many companies out there are more reactive than proactive with only loose short term plans in place (if any at all!). Short, medium and long term plans are needed - but yes they need to be flexible and adaptable and as Larry points out an element of risk is important, but it needs to be a calculated risk as much as possible, with defined possible scenarios as outcomes and a number of 'contingencies' to deal with them.

Comment by Kirsten Watson on December 2, 2008 at 9:03pm

In this video I sat down with MIT’s demand management research director, Larry Lapide, and discussed his views on sales and operations planning (S&OP).